Hiss Removal

[Dave P]

I apologise in advance if this is not quite the ideal forum for this question, but it is about a problem that I'm having while using dMc.
Ive been enjoying myself by resurrecting some old tapes and turning them into cd's. My problem is that some of them desperately need that tape hiss removed or reduced. I followed a suggestion on an earlier thread and downloaded the Audacity editor, which does seem to do the job, BUT...it's very slow. About 10 mins to process the wav from one side of a C60. When I add in setting up times and the time needed to convert files into its own 'format' and back again I can round this up to about 20mins, and thats on top of the time to play the tape to start with. Plus it feels a little bit like using a steamroller to crush a baked bean!
I have looked around, and I couldnt find a stand alone utility to help me out. Does anyone know of one? How about a (physical) black box to splice into the line in? I can't find one of those either, though I'm sure they were around some years ago.

[xoas]

Re: Hiss Removal

Well maybe if you had a RadioShack where you are at, that might be where I might first look for your "Black Box" device although I am not sure whether I would care for the results.

I did find this web article on noise reduction which you might find interesting, located here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/restoration/audio/faq.htm

They do reference a few programs including Audacity. Another thing you might experiment with is to experiment with recording technique. Perhaps if you can introduce an equalizer on the input and/or toy around with your recording volume (tape player output vs. stereo output vs. line in volume vs. recording volume) you might find an effective means of reducing hiss in the initial recording and then you might find it easier to recorrect the volume level of your tracks using volume normalization. But to do this experimentation might take some trial and error so I would not experiemnt with a whole cd but maybe only with a short track or part of a track until you are satisfied that you can get it where you want it (or that you cannot get it right and you need to go on to plan b).

Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Dave P]

Re: Hiss Removal

Thnks for the link - it seems to confirm that I was setting about the job in a reasonably appropriate manner. It wasnt the setting up time that was bothering me so much as the "hands off and go do the washing up" file crunching time. Sounds as if this is something that can't be avoided. Perhaps I can download some patience ...